Millions of Tanzanians are heading to the polls for a high-stakes general election, but their access to the outside world and to each other has been severely restricted in what digital rights groups are calling a state-orchestrated internet shutdown.
Reports of widespread disruption to social media and messaging platforms began circulating on Tuesday evening, the eve of the election, and have intensified. Major platforms, including Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, are either completely blocked or severely throttled across the country, crippling communication for ordinary citizens, journalists, and election monitors.
The internet observatory, NetBlocks, confirmed the restrictions in a report, stating, “Network data confirm widespread disruption to social media.via multiple internet providers in Tanzania.” The group noted the disruptions are impacting services on major telecom operators, including Vodacom, Airtel, Tigo, and Halotel, making it clear this is not a technical glitch but a nationwide, coordinated action.
The digital blackout casts a dark shadow over a tense and deeply divisive election. Incumbent President John Magufuli of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has been in power for decades, is seeking a second five-year term. His main challenger is Tundu Lissu of the Chadema party, who returned to the country in July after surviving a harrowing assassination attempt in 2017 that forced him into exile for three years.
Lissu and his opposition party have been vocal throughout the day, alleging widespread electoral fraud. In a series of statements some posted with great difficulty via VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) Lissu has claimed that his party’s polling agents are being denied access to polling stations, and has reported instances of “widespread irregularities,” including pre-stuffed ballot boxes.
“What is happening is not an election,” Lissu told journalists, describing the events as a “travesty.” He asserted that the internet shutdown is a deliberate tactic by the government to “prevent the sharing of information” and conceal evidence of the alleged fraud.
In a move that highlights the granular level of control, citizens have reported that standard text messages containing the name of the opposition leader, “Tundu Lissu,” are failing to send, suggesting a sophisticated keyword-filtering system is in place. This comes just days after the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) officially ordered telecom companies to suspend all bulk SMS and bulk voice services for the duration of the election period.
However, neither the TCRA nor any government official has released a statement acknowledging or explaining the blockade of social media and core internet services. The silence has only fueled accusations that the shutdown is a political tool to manage the narrative and suppress dissent.
The move has drawn sharp condemnation from human rights and digital rights organizations. Amnesty International, which had previously warned of a “shrinking democratic space” in Tanzania marked by “intimidation, harassment, and arbitrary arrests” in the run-up to the vote, called the shutdown an affront to human rights.
“The decision to shut down the internet and block platforms like WhatsApp and Twitter is a blatant attempt to silence dissent and prevent Tanzanians from accessing information,” said a spokesperson for Access Now, a group that runs the #KeepItOn campaign against internet shutdowns. “You cannot have a free and fair election in a digital blackout. This is a betrayal of the democratic process.”
The U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam also issued a statement expressing serious concern, noting it was “aware of the restrictions” and the “detention of opposition members.” The embassy stated that such actions “raise serious doubts about the credibility of the results.”
For ordinary Tanzanians, the impact is immediate. Families are struggling to communicate, businesses that rely on social media and WhatsApp are at a standstill, and voters are unable to share reports or see updates from their local polling stations. The few who can access the blocked sites are doing so through VPNs, which can mask a user’s location. However, this carries significant risk, as Tanzanian law restricts the use of VPNs to access “prohibited content.” As polls are set to close later on, the nation is enveloped in an information vacuum. The digital silence imposed by the state means that the crucial vote-tallying process will occur largely in the dark, leaving the credibility of the election in serious jeopardy and setting the stage for a potentially volatile post-election period
